


Alarm

by WhatThatElfDo



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Pining, Pre-Mighty Nein
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 09:01:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16552853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatThatElfDo/pseuds/WhatThatElfDo
Summary: Caleb's silver thread brings a new level of comfort and security for a goblin and a human traveling together





	Alarm

**Author's Note:**

> Nott is an adult goblin woman.
> 
> I own nothing. Just having fun.

The alarm spell had brought with it a modicum of security that Nott was unaccustomed to. It was practical and that had been part of why Caleb had learned it. That, and the fact that the man learned everything he could get his hands on like he was starving for it.

Nott had been so proud of his skill and his glee she hadn’t really thought of what else it might mean beyond the obvious, that he would be kept a little safer.

It had taken her a while to pick enough pockets and run through enough tricks with Caleb to get him the coin he needed for his silver thread, but she’d gotten it for him.

They had tested it that very night, across the threshold of the little abandoned shack they’d been squatting in. Caleb had carried Frumpkin on his shoulder facing away, first in the corner then out in the field further and further as Nott tried her best to sneak across, only to be met with a triumphant, “Ja!” each time so much as a claw passed into the shack.

Nott had been beaming with pride, Caleb bubbling over with an almost childish glee as they ate a small meal and readied themselves for sleep. In the heat of the moment, of a new spell learned, Nott had perhaps over indulged a bit, so she thought she could be forgiven her surprise when Caleb had thrown an arm around her and pulled her even closer than usual to whisper in a long green ear. “You don’t have to worry. I’ll wake if someone comes.”

They were used to sleeping pressed close. It had never been for anything as pragmatic as an issue of warmth or space. They had simply been drawn together through long nights until they found themselves curled loosely together most mornings. 

It hadn’t gone unacknowledged either. They had talked about it. There were few secrets between them. They were just two lonely people who needed the comfort of having someone else in this world. If others couldn’t understand it or mistook it, that was no business of theirs. Nott had often thought of it ruefully as being similar to the way Frumpkin draped himself over whatever part of Caleb or occasionally Nott was available to him at night.

Though it was no one’s business but their own, Nott had always fretted, and she hadn’t kept her fears to herself. There was enough danger to her going about town, even disguised as she was. If they were caught, curled up in a loose pile of warm limbs as they slept, well, people were liable to get the wrong idea, and even if they didn’t, she doubted it would matter much. 

There wouldn’t be much love lost for an over familiar goblin and human pair.

Caleb had tried to argue, but he didn’t have much to say, and Nott knew better, so they had worked out a deal; they played it safe. Nott had spent most nights curled around Caleb’s legs and ankles, or else with enough space between them they might be able to spring apart if they met with a rude awakening.

Now, though, Nott had realized only upon Caleb’s murmured assurance, now, they had an alarm better even than Frumpkin. Now no one would be surprising them. Now, for all intents and purposes, they were free of the threat of prying eyes.

And so it began.

That first night, she remained curled in a tight ball pressed fiercely against Caleb’s chest, and she had drifted off to the warm, deep sounds of a heart beating next to her ear. 

She slept sounder than she could remember having slept in a long time and awoke to the sight of a soft wall of worn grubby cotton and the reassuring weight of a heavy arm and a warm cat.

With the freedom of the alarm spell, they spent most nights tangled together, Nott sometimes holding Caleb through tremors at memories she knew he couldn’t voice quite yet, and Caleb twining his fingers with hers when they began to feel that restless itch or when they’d failed to find any drink in a while. 

And if sometimes Nott found herself lying awake at night, tucked firmly against a soft neck, listening to the ebb and flow of large lungs beneath her and wished she could feel that soft skin against her lips, mingle that breath with that hers, well, that was her business. 

She knew it was impossible. She hadn’t gotten as far as she had in life without a hearty dose of pragmatism. She knew what she was and she was lucky to have this much. She wasn’t going to spoil it by getting greedy or letting herself get fixated on what she couldn’t have. 

But sometimes, late at night, warm and comfortable and _together_ , she thought about the day when her skin might be soft and smooth too, and about whether a halfling woman might be able to hope for what a goblin couldn’t.

 

And if sometimes Caleb found himself awake at night, marveling at how the bright, skilled tenacity that was Nott could fit into the small bundle of fine bones and lean muscle in his arms and wished he could press his lips to every twinge of tension that shot through her as she struggled in her dreams, well, that was his business.


End file.
